Birds of a feather

These are the birds that we are trying to plaster, as of right now they are being equally uncooperative.  They still feel wet and some are crumbling.  Frustration mounting.  Today I had the class hold off on completing their birds because I was not sure they would work.  I am hoping to seek the advice of wiser art teachers at our county meeting today to trouble shoot and figure out what is going on.  Anyone out there with suggestions or feedback, please comment. 

I also wanted to include a picture of one of my classroom tables.  I tried at the beginning of the year to mod podge the signs for the tables to the center.  This looked cool.  The packaging tape was something that annoyed me because the kids spent their free moments picking at the tape until the signs came off.  I was disappointed that this idea failed as well.  Unfortunately, they would get over saturated when overly ambitious kids would wash the tables (read, "too much water") and the signs would come off.  I gave up.  I removed all the leftover mod podge and scraped 5 years worth of tape off the best I could.  I wrote on my tables with sharpies to label them.  I decorated and graffitied  them.  They won't wash off.  I can remove it at the end of the year.  The kids actually loved the designs.  Each one is different, so the kids are excited.